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LTG MacMaster recently gave a hint of the overall procurement direction he wants to move the U.S. army in. He will,give a full description at the upcoming AUSA meeting.

In brief, he wants to add greater lethality after the previous ten years focus in ME wars were more geared to vehicle protection. Most interesting was his desire to procure "off the shelf" technology to readily equip new Brigade teams.

He also stated he wants upgrade he current Styker units to more heavily armed Stykers, 50% would have a 30mm turret, 50% would have a Javelin mounted turret

Recent news article--

McMaster said one of the Army's current priorities for infantry brigade combat teams is to give them a high degree of mobility; capability that allows them to respond quickly, with low logistics demand and also the ability to operate in restricted and urban terrain.

The three-star said the Army will purchase "in the next year or so" three battalions worth of ground mobility vehicles. The service is "looking across industry for off-the-shelf capabilities that exist now" and will evaluate those for early entry forces in anti-access, aerial denial environments. These forces need to be able to move in, dismount, fire, maneuver against the enemy and control terrain, he said.

The Army also needs a light reconnaissance vehicle to equip the light cavalry squadrons so they can conduct offensive security operations "so finally when you are in close contact with the enemy in restricted urban terrain you better have mobile protected firepower," McMaster said.

LTG MacMaster recently gave a hint of the overall procurement direction he wants to move the U.S. army in. He will,give a full description at the upcoming AUSA meeting.

In brief, he wants to add greater lethality after the previous ten years focus in ME wars were more geared to vehicle protection. Most interesting was his desire to procure "off the shelf" technology to readily equip new Brigade teams.

He also stated he wants upgrade he current Styker units to more heavily armed Stykers, 50% would have a 30mm turret, 50% would have a Javelin mounted turret

Recent news article--

McMaster said one of the Army's current priorities for infantry brigade combat teams is to give them a high degree of mobility; capability that allows them to respond quickly, with low logistics demand and also the ability to operate in restricted and urban terrain.

The three-star said the Army will purchase "in the next year or so" three battalions worth of ground mobility vehicles. The service is "looking across industry for off-the-shelf capabilities that exist now" and will evaluate those for early entry forces in anti-access, aerial denial environments. These forces need to be able to move in, dismount, fire, maneuver against the enemy and control terrain, he said.

The Army also needs a light reconnaissance vehicle to equip the light cavalry squadrons so they can conduct offensive security operations "so finally when you are in close contact with the enemy in restricted urban terrain you better have mobile protected firepower," McMaster said.

Good comparison of tech etc, but a lot remains to be seen on the T14. Not only will it live up to the hype, but will it be fielded in number and perhaps most importantly how good will the crews perform

Agreed, and crew/team training and tactics still seem to be lacking the Russia

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Good to see MacMaster is still in and making a difference. I read something several years ago that he had been passed over and was unlikely to make Brigadier General before the powers that be came to their senses and gave him that well earned first star. Hard to believe the Battle of 73 Easting was almost a quarter of a century ago.

Good to see MacMaster is still in and making a difference. I read something several years ago that he had been passed over and was unlikely to make Brigadier General before the powers that be came to their senses and gave him that well earned first star. Hard to believe the Battle of 73 Easting was almost a quarter of a century ago.

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Yes Sir! Good leader, soldier's soldier that gets it. Hopefully the true leaders in the Pentagon outlast the current Administration and begin to rebuild what's actually needed for these modern times.

I think his vision for increasing lethality is in line with current and near future world situations.

WASHINGTON — The US Army is planning to set up more equipment caches — known as activity sets — in Europe as nerves continue to fray over Russia's incursion into Ukraine, putting eastern countries, particularly with ethnic ties to Russia, on alert.

Gen. Dennis Via, the commander of Army Materiel Command, told Defense News in an exclusive interview at the Association of the US Army's annual conference last week, that more caches are needed in Europe.

"There will be more activity sets," Via said. "We are looking at other options, what else we need."

So far, the Army is sending 200 M1 Abrams tanks — with the initial tranche of 90 already in the region — along with 120 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, Paladin artillery systems, engineering equipment and a multitude of other equipment. The Army will also send 81 upgraded Strykers to Europe with new 30mm cannons in response to an urgent request.

Congress needs to review and revise the Goldwater-Nichols Act, which dictated major changes to the U.S. military’s acquisition system, the chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees said.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., noted that it has been nearly three decades since the landmark legislation was passed, and said it was time for a “thorough and complete review” of the organizational structures that were put in place.

“Overall Goldwater-Nichols was a great success, we will all admit,” he said Oct. 20 during a panel discussion at the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C. think tank. “But times have changed over the last 30 years. The challenges have changed, a lot of things have changed. And so we’re committed to starting … hearings that review Goldwater-Nichols so that we can make the changes that are necessary.”

The US army is set to begin full rate production of its new 5th gen APFSDS-T DU round.
The round is optimized for Anti Tank work and is optimized for penetration and hitting against modern tanks with Active Protection systems and ERA such as the Armata

The US army will be testing a tablet translator developed by DARPA. Seems to me that later commercial development for the private sector will more than pay for the R&D costs, maybe not as successful as GPS but definitely worthwhile.

The US Army in conjunction with the USMC is currently testing the Trophy protection system on 4 M1s. The intent is to access it on both the Abrams and Styker Family of vehicles. I see this as a step in a good direction given the increasing sophistication and proliferation or modern ATGMs

According to AeroVironment, the DDL provides a stable, encrypted communication link that enables more efficient use of existing frequency bands, thus reducing the chance of signal interception. The Switchblade Block 10C will enhance soldiers' capabilities in the field through encrypted operation and improved army-wide frequency de-confliction and management.

The US Army's Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) has taken delivery of a two-arm highly dexterous manipulation system (HDMS) from RE2 Robotics.

The HDMS has been supplied as part of an Army Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II extension contract. The dual-arm HDMS technology can be used for explosive ordnance disposal, as well as combat engineering and chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, explosives (CBRNE) operations.

The manipulator's arms allow operators to perform complex tasks, such as securing an object with one arm and manipulating with the other.RE2 Robotics president and CEO Jorgen Pedersen said: "The direct benefit of the HDMS technology to army personnel is significantly increased performance and capability over currently fielded manipulators for both tele-operated and semi-autonomous use on mobile robot platforms.

The US Army has been resorting to creative in an attempt to balance its books be fore a Congress mandated audit in 2017. Trillions of dollars have been involved. U.S. Army fudged its accounts by trillions of dollars, auditor finds | Reuters Apparently US Defence Department accounts haven't been audited for decades and lack of such oversight has now come to bite the regulators in their ass.

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